April Fool?

I've always thought it was highly appropriate that my only child should have been born on April 1st. Nature, not content with giving her a slightly skewed mother, made sure she had a birth date that everyone else would snigger at...

And I couldn't even use the old adage about "April Fools jokes are only valid until mid-day" as she was born at 9.20 a.m. Duh!

So, we spent her childhood informing all the playground bullies and those prissy little girls with angelic eyes and vitriolic tongues that you get in every mixed infants class, that being born on April Fools Day was A Good Thing, A Happy Thing, A Funny Day, A Day When Everyone Becomes A Prankster - sort of like an early comic relief...

Mercifully, Elle has always been a strong-minded and very grounded child (amazing given she has me as a mother) and has long since risen above being labelled an April Fool. Now she enjoys sharing her birthday with such mixed luminaries as Philip Schofield, Otto von Bismark, David Gower and Ali MacGraw - and being April 1st babies doesn't seem to have harmed their careers.

When Elle was little we used to make the most of the day by throwing childhood parties that were a cross between a circus and the Edinburgh Fringe. You didn't get in to our caravan (another story!) unless you were dressed up in something amusing and could tell jokes.

So - Happy Funny Birthday, Elle, have a wonderful day, enjoy the meal tonight - and I'm really sorry...